The Pontiac, Mich., native plans to transfer somewhere closer to home to be with her family because her father is suffering a serious illness.

“We are sad to hear about Gabby’s decision to return to Michigan,” Bluder said in a statement. “We certainly respect her decision to be with her family and father, as he is very ill.  We are in complete support as she finds a place closer to home to continue her academic and basketball career.”

The 6-0 forward played in 31 games and averaged 3.7 points and 3.4 rebounds. In Iowa’s second-round loss to No. 1-seeded Stanford in the NCAA Women’s Tournament, Machado had nine points and a team-high seven rebounds on March 22.

– by Evelyn Lau

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PALO ALTO, Calif. — For the first in eight years, the Iowa women’s basketball team (20-13) is advancing to the second round of the NCAA Tournament.

The No. 8 seeded Hawkeyes defeated No. 9 Rutgers (19-15), 70-63, in the Maples Pavilion in the first-round matchup at Stanford on Saturday.

Iowa had balanced scoring with junior Kachine Alexander leading the way. Alexander had 18 points, eight rebounds, and four assists.

Sophomore Kamille Wahlin and freshman Jaime Printy had 15 points a piece, Morgan Johnson added 12, and sophomore Kelly Krei had 10. The team is a perfect 14-0 when four or more players score in double figures in a game.

After injuries and illness hampered the team early in the season, the Hawkeyes have finished strong by winning 12 of their last 15 games.

“We’re extremely happy,” head coach Lisa Bluder said. “This is a team that has come through so much this year. I continue to be amazed by them. I continued to be so proud of their effort.”

Both teams had a sloppy start, but Iowa went on an 8-2 run to hold a 28-21 edge at halftime. During the second half, Rutgers turned to using a full court press to put defensive pressure on the Hawkeyes — causing 18 Iowa turnovers in the process.

With 4:12 left in the game, the teams were tied, 56-56. A string of plays by Wahlin helped put away the Scarlet Knights. The sophomore was fouled on a made layout for the three-point play and then hit a 3-pointer the very next possession to give the Hawkeyes a 62-56 advantage before free-throws sealed the victory.

Alexander was quick to commend her young teammates on their ability to remain calm and collected under the pressure of a close game.

“When we were going through that time with Rutgers really on a run, we had to stick together and stay together,” she said. “Usually with a young team they might just crumble, especially in the NCAA Tournament, but we really stuck it out and kept our composure the whole time and kept playing very well.”

This was the first time the Hawkeyes have defeated the Scarlet Knights, losing the two previous times the teams met back in 2005 and 2006.

For Rutgers head coach C. Vivian Stringer, the loss was bittersweet. As the former Iowa coach from 1983 until 1995, Stringer brought Iowa to their only Final Four appearance and No. 1 ranking in school history.

After the game, despite her disappointment, she still showed love to her old program.

“It’s always tough this tiem of the year, especially when you get bounced early on,” she said. “Honestly, if we had to lose to somebody, there’s no other team I would have rather have loss to than the Iowa Hawkeyes. We played hard, but Iowa was just better.”

The Hawkeyes are now 17-18 all-time in the NCAA Tournament and improve to 8-4 in the first round games. Iowa plays the winner of No. 1 Stanford vs. No. 16 University of California-Riverside on Monday at 8:30 p.m. (central time) for a chance to go to the Sweet 16.

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As a No. 3 seed in the Big Ten tournament, the Hawkeyes put together a remarkable run to the championship game against top-seeded and 10th-ranked Ohio State.

After leading for most of the contest — as well as holding a 16-point advantage at one point in the second half — Iowa just couldn’t hold on, falling 66-64 to the Buckeyes.

The turning point of the game came when Ohio State had possession of the ball with 26 seconds left. While both squads were tied, 64-64, with 1.9 seconds left, the referees called a foul on freshman Trisha Nesbitt. It allowed reigning Big Ten Player of the Year and junior Jantel Lavender to reach the free-throw line. Her two freebies gave Ohio State the lead and sealed the game.

During the postgame press conference, head coach Lisa Bluder addressed the issue of the foul call.

“Obviously, I wish [the ref] wouldn’t have made the call,” she said. “I think it would have been a great overtime. And it seemed like after that game the way it was going it should have went into overtime. … So it is what it is.”

While the 10th-year Iowa coach won’t say it, I will.

To determine a game with less than two seconds left by calling a foul when it hasn’t been called the previous 39 minutes in the contest is questionable. And with so much on the line, how they can feel good about that decision is beyond me.

I’ll give Lavender credit, she was clutch. She nailed both of them perfectly. She was named the Most Outstanding Player for a reason. I had to bite my tongue in disbelief with that ruling.

I almost had the same feeling in my stomach while watching Lavender drain those feel throws as I did when Devin Barclay hit the game-winning overtime field goal for Ohio State back in November.

Slow, painful, and inevitable.

However, what’s done is done. While the team may be left in tears now, they are undoubtedly a force in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes should have been ranked in the top 25 coming into this game, but because of a slow start during the beginning of the season, weren’t.

Even though they were the third seed in the tournament, they were also considered underdogs. Boasting one of the youngest starting line-ups in the country, Iowa has shown impressive maturity the last two months.

The Hawkeyes’ strong play the last month and a half  — where they’ve won 11 out of their last 14 games — has likely guaranteed them a spot int he NCAA tournament. There isn’t a more deserving team to receive an at-large bid to the Big Dance.

Losing to Ohio State twice by a mere eight points, I hope the Hawkeyes get a chance to redeem themselves. Bloodied and battered from this weekend, I don’t think they’re done yet.

“I feel like we played hard,” Bluder said. ” We didn’t get the victory and it hurts right now, but I think we’ll ounce back and be ready for the tournament.”

Me too.

— by Evelyn Lau

evelyn-lau@uiowa.edu

Click here to view an exclusive photo slideshow from the game. (opens in new window)

After ending a season-high five-game losing skid in five sets against Wisconsin on Nov. 11, Iowa (12-16, 4-12) was swept 3-0 (25-13, 25-13, 28-26) by No. 13 Minnesota (20-7, 11-4) at Carver-Hawkeye Arena on Nov. 13.

After only getting four days to prepare for their match against the Badgers as opposed to a full week, Iowa head coach Sharon Dingman said fatigue wasn’t an excuse for her team’s slow start against Minnesota.

“[Wisconsin] was an emotion win, so you certainty think that could have something to do with that,”  Dingman said. “But at this level, I guess we expected that’s not going to happen. If we have the expectation of success, we’re going to have to be able to come off of a win and put together another good match to follow it.”

It was the second straight game, the Hawkeyes played without starters Mara Hilgenberg and Aimee Huffman, both out with unrelated illness.

“[Nov. 11] was definitely way more exciting just because it was that first career start for me,” sophomore setter Paige Stevens said after the match. “[Nov. 13], I was a little bit more relaxed, maybe almost too relaxed. I feel like a lot of us were.”

Sophomore middle blocker Mallory Husz had 10 kills, while Stevens dished 23 assists and had a career-high 11 digs for the Hawkeyes in the loss.

The Golden Gophers were led by freshman outside hitter Tabitha Love, who had 15 kills. Senior setter Taylor Carico added 39 assists, and senior libero Christine Tan had 16 digs.

Minnesota, ranked third in the Big Ten in hitting percentage, hit well-above their season average of .256 with an attacking percentage of .336 while holding the Hawkeyes to a .151 attacking percentage.

In the first set, Minnesota jumped out to an early 10-3 lead. Holding the Hawkeyes to an attacking percentage of .077, the Golden Gophers took the first set easily, 25-13, and a 1-0 match advantage.

In the second set, Minnesota got off to a fast start, taking a 17-8 lead before eventually winning the set, 25-13, and taking a 2-0 lead in the match. Iowa hit .053 in the set as opposed to the Golden Gopher’s .389.

In the third set, Iowa opened with an early 5-0 lead.

After the Hawkeyes took a 13-8 edge, the Golden Gophers called a time-out. A 10-5 run by Minnesota saw the Gophers tie up the set, 18-18.

The two teams then traded points before the Hawkeyes found themselves in a 24-22 hole.

Iowa battled back to tied the game up, 25-25, but Minnesota forced two Hawkeyes errors and used a kill to take the final set and the match.

“In the third set, we kind of just decided it was going to be all effort,” senior outside hitter Megan Schipper said. “We were going to leave everything we had on the court because we had these next two days off, so we played a lot harder. But it still sucks to lose — especially by two points.”

Despite the loss, Hawkeye players said they still took a few positives out of the match.

“We obviously figured out how to get over that bump of those first two sets,” Stevens said. “So that was good. We ended on a better note than we started.”